


Café Man on the Moon

by Mjus



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Café, Crossdressing, Slice of Life, hints at homosexuality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-11
Updated: 2016-10-11
Packaged: 2018-08-21 21:59:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8261843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mjus/pseuds/Mjus
Summary: Jack is working at the café Man on the Moon. It's an ordinary day when a girl who has had a bad day walks in and Jack takes it upon herself to cheer her up.





	

Working at a café was a lot like riding a rollercoaster if you asked for Jack Overland’s opinion. He’d been working at Café Man on the Moon for two years now and had no intention of quitting, no matter what he’d once studied to become. Jack’s parents couldn’t say they were overjoyed their son had abandoned his dream to work at a nursery. They’d tried to ask why but had yet to receive a truthful answer, because they all knew “I changed my mind” was bullshit.

Today Jack came in for his afternoon shift just a little earlier to let a nervous Bunny (Jack’s official nickname of the man because really, finding a jumpier guy would be difficult) off his so he could get to the dentist on time.

Entering the kitchen while pinning the name tag to his chest Jack met with a co-worker two years older than him but with a face that indicated she was several years younger.

“Hey, Baby. Anything happened while I was gone?” Jack asked jokingly, using the pet name his friend went by.

“Well,” the girl mused as she cleaned up a drink she’d been clumsy enough to spill. “Miss Black came in with a new boyfriend and ordered tea.”

“Tea?” Jack parroted with a laugh and tried again to tie his apron behind his back. “Who was the boyfriend? Must be quite something to get Miss Black Coffee to drink tea.”

“Japanese guy,” Baby responded with a smirk.

“Figures.”

Finally securing the apron around his waist Jack went to work; taking up orders and serving them to the costumers. This was the best and worst part of the job, or the rollercoaster; the costumers. The other part; fixing drinks on demand, washing dishes, cleaning up and making sure they didn’t run out of snacks and sweets was a neutral job Jack could do in his sleep. It was the costumers who made all the difference. Jack thought he’d seen almost everything. There were perfectly sweet people who ordered exactly what Jack predicted they would and the same kind who ordered the exact opposite. There were people coming in who’d just broken up with their partner and hoped something sweet or really dark coffee would somehow help, although Jack couldn’t say exactly how sugar or bitterness could be of any help against heartbreak. Some talked about it, others never once lifted their gaze from the floor and didn’t say a word about their broken hearts though it was clear to read on their faces. There were happy and chatty people, the kind Jack silently favoured, and the quiet, more business-like type of people.

And of course there were jerks. Complete assholes that could cause a staff member to spend a night or two in tears. Baby, or Petite as was her actual name, was often a favourite target.

Jack shook his head clear from the thought of a jerk harassing his friend caused by the sight of a pale guy with inky black hair and a black coat walking by outside and instead smiled at the people actually walking inside.

It was a somewhat busy afternoon. It had been like this all week. Apparently there was some sort of special course going on at the nearby high school and students from almost each corner of the country was here to participate.

The door opened again and Jack turned, fired his most charming white smile and greeted the new arrival with a cheery “Wel...”

The face that greeted Jack’s was dark from rage with sparks flying from the eyes as if a thunder storm was raging inside them.

“...come...” Jack finished weakly as the person strode by him and sat down at an empty table in the corner.

Oh yes. There were also costumers who’d had a terrible day, and Jack saw it as his call to try and brighten their days. To him, to make a person smile, especially one who was sad or angry, was more rewarding than any tip or praise. This was definitely a case for him.

Leaving the dishes and switching his old pen for a new one Jack took a moment to eye his costumer and figure out the best way of approach. The costumer was a young girl, teenager, with short, rich brown hair and freckles across her face. Dressed in a long, green tunic with wide sleeves, a belt to show off shapes, black leggings that ended just below her knees and sandals on her feet she made a rather average image. Nothing like himself.

Jack was albino, which means he lacked pigments and therefore was naturally a very pale guy. His skin was like marble streaked with the faint blue lines of his veins. His hair was white as snow. Once he’d attempted to dye it brown, but all that caused was to make him appear even paler than he really was. His teachers had been on almost constant alert, waiting for him to faint or in some other way need medical treatment.

The only part of himself Jack liked was his eyes. They were a clear blue colour. He would occasionally thank any higher entity that might be out there he hadn’t gotten the telltale red eyes of a real albino.

Baby bumped heads with him from across the counter he leaned on to see who he was looking at.

“Bad day,” she whispered as she observed the girl pull a frustrated hand through her already messy hair.

“Absolutely awful day,” Jack nodded.

“Be careful,” the girl warned lightly. “In a worst case scenario she’s had an absolutely awful day in the beginning of her cycle.”

Jack smiled at her. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Baby nodded and turned to welcome the next group of costumers and Jack approached the freckled girl. He promptly decided on a gentle tone and open face. “Good afternoon, miss. How can I serve you?”

She looked up at him. The rage was as present as it had been when she walked inside, but this time Jack was prepared for the glare and calmly met her gaze.

She had green eyes, momentarily darkened and surrounded by mostly ruined make-up. Jack had expected brown eyes and was therefore a tad bit surprised.

The girl quickly looked away and pulled a hand over her face, stopping at her mouth as if she contemplated something. At last she dropped the hand and sighed.

“Sorry for the dirty look,” she apologized quietly with a rough, raspy voice and without looking at him. “This just hasn’t turned out as I imagined.”

Jack smiled reassuringly. “That’s quite alright, I’m not offended. After all, I’ve had my share of bad days and know what it’s like.”

She gave him a look, as if she wasn’t really sure of what to answer.

“Can I get you a hot drink? It might help calm your nerves,” Jack suggested.

“Thanks, but I don’t think I can stomach a hot drink at the moment. Could you just get me a coke... please,” she added, though it sounded rather forced.

“Right away, miss,” Jack smiled and left, feeling a little dejected he hadn’t been of any help to the girl. Yet. He still had two more chances; when he served her order and when she would pay.

A group of four girls came in and they spotted Jack rather instantly.

“Jack. How are you?” the first girl spoke, a pretty brunette always wearing too much make-up and nobody seemed courageous enough to tell her so. She also dressed a little too... little. Even if Jack found the girl annoying at times he still worried about her going out after dark with the way she liked to dress.

“I’m alright, thank you,” the albino said without stopping. “I’ll be with you in a moment.”

“We’ll be at our usual table,” the girl answered with a smile she probably thought was seductive.

“I’ll see you there,” Jack smiled back at her, picking out a can of coke and a glass. But then a thought suddenly hit him and he froze. Those girls’ usual table was...

“Hey! This is our table!”

...the one the poor freckled girl sat at!

Jack wasted no time. He put the can and glass on a tray and hurried over to the scene.

“The table was reserved?” the freckled girl asked. “I didn’t see a sign.”

“We don’t need a sign, we always sit here,” the brunette explained with her nose in the air.

“The next table’s free and I’m not moving.”

“You are...!”

“Rude,” Jack said loudly to pull all attention to him. The girls looked shocked at his outburst while the freckled girl simply observed. “You are,” Jack continued in a calmer tone “in fact, being rude. As long as you haven’t made a reservation you can’t simply ask already seated guests to move when there clearly are free seats.”

“But we always sit here,” the brunette whined. “She’s taken our seats.”

“Oh, grow up, will ye. Or better yet, learn some manners. Your parents are slacking,” the freckled girl spat.

The brunette turned around, her face very red, and lifted her hand to strike, but Jack caught it in a hard grip. She let out a cry of pain.

“If you hit her, I must throw you out and not allow you to come back,” Jack informed her firmly. “We simply don’t tolerate violence here.”

The girls looked at each other, unsure. The brunette looked close to tears as Jack released her wrist. The entire café was watching the scene now, and the four girls grew self-conscious. Without a word they quietly sat down two tables down.

“I’ll be with you in a second,” Jack called after them. Then he turned to the freckled girl who was watching him quite intensely, though the dark look had not left her face. “A coke was it?” Jack smiled at her and set the can and glass on the table. “Sorry. Usually I would pour the drink before serving but...” He discreetly threw a glance at the quintet of girls.

“Thanks for the save,” the girl muttered and grabbed the can. Jack noticed her hands were shaking. Obviously she was still stressed out. And the ring coming off without opening the can certainly didn’t help any.

With the ring caught between her fingers of her other hand the girl stared at the top of the can as if she couldn’t believe that just happened. Jack didn’t dare speak. He stood as frozen as the girl, waiting for the tension to drop.

The girl’s face distorted in utter frustration and she let out an angry cry, shook the can violently before slamming it down on the table with all her might. The result was that the can exploded. Right up into her face.

Everyone who saw it laughed.

The four girls a few tables down laughed the loudest.

Jack just stood there, holding his breath and simply watched as the sticky soda overflowed over the girl’s hands as they kept squeezing the can. Her eyes were closed and Jack hoped she hadn’t gotten anything in her eyes.

This wasn’t nearly how he’d planned this. He’d wanted to cheer her up, not make it worse!

“What are you waiting for?”

“Huh?”

The girl had slumped in her seat, head down and soda dripping down her face and from her hair. Her voice was very quiet when she spoke.

“Go ahead. Laugh at me. Like everybody else.”

Jack swallowed and turned his head. Baby stood at the counter, watching with a hand covering her mouth and eyes wide with horror. But it was the man who’d made her company that Jack focused on. Mr Joyce, owner of the café, locked gaze with Jack and pointed to the back. “Staff room” he mouthed to the albino who eagerly nodded his head. Getting the poor girl out of the dining area was definitely the best thing to do right now.

“Come on, let’s get you out of here,” he said and gently grabbed the girl’s arm, pulling her up and prying the crumbled can out of her hands.

She kept her eyes closed so Jack led her into the staff room as carefully as he could with an arm protectively around her shoulder. Thankfully the door shut out most of the laugher that still followed them.

“I’ll take you to the restroom to get the soda out of your face and hair and I’ll fetch a clean shirt for you.”

“Thanks,” the girl said, voice cracking.

“Don’t mention it. I know you told me to laugh at you, but sadly I don’t find others misfortune very funny.”

“...Thanks,” she said again, quieter and with her head bowed lower. Her shoulders shook as the stress was finally being released.

Jack smiled to himself. It was amazing how much a little kindness shown to someone else could mean. This girl was obviously in desperate need of that kindness.

“We’re here,” he told the girl as he led her into the restroom and straight to the washbowl. He guided her hand to the tap and gave it a light pat. “You can clean up. There’s a towel to your right. I’ll be back in a minute.”

Jack hadn’t even left the restroom before the girl turned on the water and started splashing her face. He left her to her task and picked out his keys from his pocket. He always had a change of clothes in his locker in case Bad Luck paid him a visit. He opened his locker and checked his choices. He had a t-shirt and... his favourite hoodie. Jack bit his lip, thinking of what the girl was wearing; a long tunic and leggings.

He picked out the t-shirt and checked the length. No, it only reached a little past the waistline of his slacks. But the girl was smaller than him, so surely it would be longer on her...

The albino regretfully glanced into his locker again. He sighed to himself as he refolded his t-shirt and pulled out the hoodie instead. It was just a piece of cloth after all. It was pretty much falling apart anyway.

Returning to the restroom Jack knocked first and received a distracted “come on in” before he opened the door.

Whatever Jack had been about to say he instantly forgot it. His jaw slackened as his eyes drank in the sight in front of him.

The girl had taken off the tunic and was now busy trying to clean out the soda from the fabric, leaving her upper body bare. The leggings were tight on her and left nothing to fantasy.

It was only one thing; it wasn’t a girl that pulled a hand through short, wet hair and turned to look at him. No, turning to face him was the very reason Jack could never work at a nursery.

Jack couldn’t think clearly as his eyes looked the _boy_ from head to toe. The body was slender everywhere and each patch of visible skin was sprinkled with freckles in dark and lighter hues. The leggings hugged slim legs and a very nice behind indeed.

“I lost a bet.”

The albino jumped at the sound of a voice and hurriedly shut his mouth, almost biting his tongue in the process. “What?”

“I lost a bet, that’s why I’m dressing like a girl.”

Blinking owlishly it took a moment for Jack to register who was talking. By that time the boy had returned to his task of washing his tunic.

“Wow. So you’re a guy,” Jack heard himself say. “Like, really?” Suddenly he got worried his head would pop open and a bird on a spring would jump out calling “cuckoo-cuckoo”. He felt so stupid. Especially when narrowed green eyes turned to glare at him.

“Do I really look that much of a girl?!” the freckled boy asked miserably.

“You definitely had me going,” Jack answered truthfully, still trying to gather himself from the surprise. And tear his eyes away from that butt.

“I know. I’ve got the whole frickin’ town going. So much so I’m getting sexually harassed in more ways than one.”

That finally had Jack waking up. He shook his head and blinked, quickly coming back to reality. “Harassed?” he echoed stupidly. “Why? I mean... Why are you doing this again?”

The boy had said why he paraded as a girl but Jack hadn’t quite heard him.

“I lost a bet,” the boy repeated slowly and wrung water from his tunic until his knuckles turned white.

“Oh. Well, that’s too bad,” Jack mumbled awkwardly.

The other boy just hummed as he continued to wring his tunic. Jack saw his face in the mirror; it was still as dark as it had been when he first came to the café, but now it was not only overhanging anger in his eyes. Now the shame and humiliation were the most dominant shadows over him.

Jack cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, really. I didn’t mean to offend you,” he spoke quietly. “I just... You came in here dressed as a girl and I thought no deeper into it. I mean... it’s really none of my business what people chose to wear.”

The boy turned and looked at him, again searching for something in Jack’s eyes. Jack quickly looked down, the scrutiny making him self-conscious, and remembered why he was here to begin with.

“You can borrow this, if you like. I know it’s the middle of April but you’re sure to catch a cold if you walk home in damp clothes.”

The cold look in the boy’s eyes faded. “Thanks,” he said at length. He draped his wrinkled tunic over the washbowl and turned to accept the hoodie. Jack forcefully fixed his eyes on the other boy’s face because those leggings left way too little to imagination.

Holding the cloth up in front of him the freckled boy took a little too long quietly looking at it.

“It’s mine,” Jack explained, daring the other to point out the state of his favourite article of clothing. “It was the only thing I had that would hopefully be long enough to... cover your butt.”

The boy flinched, looked down and hastily pressed the hoodie to his chest, face an angry red and eyes glaring at Jack who had thrown his gaze to the ceiling.

“It’s not _funny_ ,” the boy hissed.

“I was actually trying to be considerate, but if you don’t want it...” Jack made a move to take his hoodie back but the boy jumped away.

“No, no, no! It’s fine! It’s fine! I’m sorry! Thank you for your consideration!”

He quickly pulled the faded blue material over his head and down over his hips, making sure everything was well covered. Jack had been right; the hoodie was more than long enough. It easily went over the boy’s hips without having to be constantly pulled down. The boy also noticed this and let out a sigh of relief. Then of course he had to go back to counting the holes around every single seam. Jack let out an offended huff.

“It’s my favourite one okay! Make a comment and I’ll take it right back!”

Green eyes looked up in startled surprise at the outburst. “Oh.” He blinked and laughed a little nervously. “Sorry, I thought... _for a moment_ ,” he emphasized “that it was moths.”

Jack was fully prepared to respond, but one glance at the holes around the neck of his dear hoodie was enough to tell him the truth, and he let out a mournful sigh. “I know. It has served its purpose. You don’t have to return it. So, you wanna go back to the café or leave out the back door?”

Those green eyes were once again looking at him in that searching way, but this time around he wasn’t frowning and Jack had to notice his eyes were a little brighter than before.

The boy glanced at the door to the restroom they were in. “I was actually going to meet up with a friend, but...” he bit his lip and distress flashed by in his eyes “I really don’t want to go out there again.”

“It’s okay,” Jack assured. “I’ll show you out.”

The boy nodded and went back to grab his still wet tunic, and the stuffed bra he’d thrown on the floor which he carefully wrapped up in the green fabric, before quietly following the albino out. The back door was the staff’s entrance and opened to the small parking lot behind the café. Jack hadn’t realized how late it was before now; seeing the sky had already began paling and shifting colour, preparing the world for the coming night.

“The nights are so late here,” the boy by his side said quietly as he too looked to the sky.

“What do you mean?”

Their eyes met and the shorter male shrugged. “I’m from way further north. This time of year the sky would be much darker by this hour, even if it is April.”

Jack only nodded and looked at the other’s face as discreetly as he could, trying to decipher if he had managed to chase away at least some of the shadows in his eyes.

A thought flashed in the boy’s green eyes and he spun around to face Jack. “I didn’t pay for the coke.”

The albino blinked before he remembered what coke the other was talking about. “Oh. Well,” he gave a disarming smile “I didn’t pour the drink as I was supposed to, neither did you drink it, you could even say the can was defect. According to the protocol you actually have the right to sue me for ruining your cloths.”

Green eyes blinked back, and then his mouth curved in a lopsided smile. “All things considered, I’d be the jerk of the year if I did.”

“Thank you, I appreciate it,” Jack grinned and the other boy chuckled quietly.

“I better get going before my friend start tearing through the whole town when she can’t find me anywhere.”

“Be careful,” Jack called after him as the green-eyed boy started walking.

Then he stopped, turned around, and smiled. “Thank you Jack. It’s good to know there are still people like you in the world.”

At first the albino was stunned. On the inside he had already sighed dejectedly because he hadn’t managed to get the other to really smile. Now he was faced with the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen, one that reached all the way to the very depth of those green eyes.

Jack smiled right back. “Please come again.”

 

* * *

 

When Jack got to work the next day a surprise was waiting for him neatly folded in front of his locker. It was his hoodie; thoroughly mended with white thread, creating an intricate pattern that almost looked like frost. On the front a piece of paper was pinned with a needle with a blue paper flower at the head. Taking out the needle Jack unfolded the paper, finding a message written with a straight and sort of pointed handwriting.

It said;

_Hey Jack. I was hoping to return your hoodie directly to you but they told me you wouldn’t be in before afternoon. Sadly I have to go back home today and don’t have time to wait. I wanted to thank you for yesterday. I know I was a bit of a jerk, but you didn’t laugh at me and I’m grateful. Since you said it was your favourite I tried to mend your shirt to the best of my ability (not too good, sorry :’() Hopefully it will “serve its purpose” for some time still._

_Thank you again_ _:)_

_Hiccup_

Looking back at his mended hoodie, Jack carefully picked it up and smelled at it.

It smelled a little like cinnamon.

So his name is Hiccup, Jack thought to himself, feeling a mixture of happy and sad. He knew he’d probably never see the boy again and it hurt, just a little. But at least he’d gotten his name. And he had gotten his hoodie back with a whole new significance to it.


End file.
